Well That Was Ugly: Packers Kill Vikings on Thursday Night Football (Videos)

The last three nationally televised non-Sunday NFL games have been pretty one-sided. Last Friday the headline was “Giants Annihilate Washington,” and on Tuesday it was Chiefs Pound Patriots.” Today it’s “Packers Kill Vikings.”

I’d like to think the carnage will stop, and that this Monday we’ll finally get a good game. But the matchup is Seattle-Washington, so I don’t think that’s going to happen.

As for last night’s contest, it was just ugly. It wasn’t so much about the Packers being great as it was about the Vikings being awful. The Packers only had 320 total yards on offense—164 passing, 156 rushing—and there were several ineffective three-and-outs. But the Vikings were awful, gaining just 299 total yards—188 passing, 111 rushing—while turning the ball over three times.

Don’t get me wrong, the Packers were good. Check out this 66-yard touchdown pass from smokin’Aaron Rodgers to Jordy Nelson:

Plus running back Eddie Lacy ran for a season-high 105 yards and was a tank in the red zone. Watch him run right through Robert Blanton and pop his helmet off:

But there were also plays like this one, in which Julius Peppers intercepts a Christian Ponder pass intended for…well, Julius Peppers apparently:

Of course, the most memorable part of this play occurred after Peppers made it into the endzone, when Morgan Burnett had to remind him to go take his Lambeau leap:

“It was actually pretty tough to get up there,” the former Bear (and before that, Panther) said of his first Lambeau Leap. “I was pretty tired after that run, so I barely got up there. It was tough.”

“Yeah, I’m so sorry it was very ‘tough’ for you to celebrate that pick six,” Vikings coach Mike Zimmer probably thought.